FBI to interview child missing for days before being found in basement

Jun. 30, 2014

Charlie Bothuell V, 12, of Detroit / Detroit Police Department

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Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

The FBI has scheduled a forensic interview on Tuesday with 12-year-old Charlie Bothuell V, who was missing for days before being found in the basement of his home, Detroit policed said today.

“Based on the outcome of this interview, the Detroit Police Department may be submitting a package to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s office as early as Wednesday afternoon,” according to a statement from Detroit police. “For the time being, Charlie is currently staying with relatives in an undisclosed location.”

Charlie was found in the basement of his home in the 1300 block of Nicolet Place Wednesday, while police executed a search warrant.

When he was taken to a hospital, a doctor observed a half-circular scar on his chest, which Charlie said was from his father “driving a PVC pipe into his chest,” according to a petition filed in Wayne County’s juvenile court last week regarding Charlie’s two younger siblings.

Those two children were removed by Children’s Protective Services from the custody of their parents, Monique Dillard-Bothuell and Charlie Bothuell IV, who is Charlie’s father.

According to the petition, Charlie told authorities that Dillard-Bothuell, his stepmother, placed him in the basement of their home and told him “not to come out, no matter what he hears.”

The petition says that a PVC pipe with blood on it was recovered from the home. It’s unclear whose blood is on the pipe. The petition says that on June 23, Bothuell “disclosed physically disciplining” his son with a pipe.

Bothuell has denied abusing his son and his attorney, Mark Magidson, denied that a pipe was used to abuse Charlie.

The petition filed in juvenile court regarding Charlie’s siblings — ages 4 years and 10 months — has to be authorized. It says that, because of the abuse allegations involving Charlie, the other children should not be in their parents’ care.

In the petition, the Department of Human Services requests that the court “find the children are without proper care and custody.” According to the petition, DHS also requests that the court take jurisdiction over the children, make them temporary court wards and place them with DHS.

A court referee ordered that Dillard-Bothuell and Bothuell could have supervised visits with the two children at a CPS location.